Monthly Archives: February 2019

If you have poor night vision, you may have a certain fear about driving after dark, especially with rain on your windshield and bright lights coming at you.

Being able to drive safely in the dark is very important, because during short winter days, you can hardly go to or from work and not drive in darkness at least one way. If you struggle with poor night vision or night blindness, here are 5 tips for safe driving after dark.

Increase Your Visibility

It may sound odd to advise you to clean off your headlights, but consider the street film and dirt that cake other parts of your car. That film and dirt covers your headlights too, and it decreases your visibility. Keeping your headlights clean increases your visibility, even if it’s just a little bit.

While you are at it, consider wiping clean the inside of the front windshield. We often clean the outer windshield, but forget that the inner windshield can get dirty. If you don’t believe me, just wipe a white tissue across the inner windshield.

Chances are you will see a dark film left on the tissue. When you spend time in your car with windows up, over time, your exhale contributes to that film.

Another way to increase your visibility is to remove your sunglasses when the sun begins to set. Visibility is more important than fashion. You need every bit of light coming to your eyes to benefit your eyesight. And that goes for darkened windshields too.

If your vehicle has a one, and you have difficulty driving in the dark, you might want to get it replaced.

Reduce Your Speed and Anticipate

To give yourself more time to react to obstacles and anticipate road hazards, reduce your speed. You need to see pedestrians and bikers in plenty of time to avoid them, and you want to see exit signs in time to exit safely.

Going a slower speed allow you more time to evaluate obstacles and more time to maneuver out of threatening situations.

Drive for Your Weather Conditions

Rain at night means you will have glare as you face oncoming blinding lights. To help you focus on something other than the blinding lights of oncoming vehicles, follow the line on the right edge of the road with your eyes.

This helps shield you a bit from the brightness of approaching headlights.

If it’s raining heavily, your front wipers may not be helping you enough. Be sure they are replaced as needed. Also, your windshield may get coated with standing water when trucks pass you.

If you have trouble seeing during heavy rain or because of splash up, find a safe spot off the highway and wait it out. It’s not safe to pull to the shoulder of the road to wait. You can be hit from behind by other drivers.

Pull totally off the road to park at a service station or parking lot and wait for a change in the weather or road conditions.

Night fog creates another driving difficulty, and a dangerous one. For better visibility, you will want to keep your headlights on low beam and consider taking routes that have less potential fog or traffic.

Get Your Vitamin A

Researchers have known for years that vitamin A improves night vision. But you should ask your physician before taking high doses of this supplement.

If you are getting enough green leafy vegetables, and you are taking a daily multi-vitamin, chances are you are getting a reasonable amount of this vitamin already.

A carrot is rich in Vitamin A, that’s why it is very useful for your eyes. Make juice with special juicers for carrots and don’t worry about night driving.

Park Your Car

Probably the best night blindness driving tip is to avoid driving at night if your eyesight is compromised or you have too much driving fear. Why take chances? If you don’t need to drive at night, don’t.

Leave the errand until tomorrow, and park your car when you run out of daylight hours.

If you don’t see well when driving at night, consider following these 5 driving tips: increase your visibility, reduce your speed, anticipate obstacles, drive for the weather conditions, get your vitamin A, or just park your car.